Congress leaders including former union ministers, P. Chidambaram and Veerappa Moily, on Wednesday hit out at Home Minister Amit Shah for pitching Hindi as the common language for India.
“How a Home Minister of a country like India could create this kind of apprehension in the minds of the people is really anti-federal. It is most appropriate for the unity of the country that Amit Shah withdraws such statements,” Mr. Moily said in a statement.
“Shah has also further said that multi-party democracy has failed in this country. He forgets that multi-party democracy has in fact kept the unity and integrity of this country intact and also the democracy vibrant,” he added.
Senior Congress leader M. Shashidhar Reddy in an email to Mr. Shah said “his comments were a sure prescription for North-South divide.”
“The Tamil people, as well as all others who speak other languages, will never allow the imposition of Hindi,” Mr. Chidambaram’s family tweeted on his behalf.
